A NEW URBAN FOOD ZONING CODE FOR PORTLAND

Portland has long been a center of ad-hoc urban agriculture. For many decades, Portlanders have grown vegetables in their backyards. Over the past 30 plus years, community gardens have sprung up where people without adequate yard space can also garden. And now an increasing number of folks are raising livestock in town as well. The City of Portland has supported in theory this booming movement of farmers' markets, community gardens, backyard farming, community supported agriculture and food buying clubs. But zoning code regulations have not kept pace and in many cases are cumbersome or contradictory.

So now the City of Portland has approved an updated food zoning code. It's the city's first broad look at how regulations affect the activities associated with growing and distributing food in our neighborhoods. And hopefully the new code will reflect the changes and needs of a city that is trying to feed itself.

On this episode of Locus Focus we find out about how this new code will hopefully encourage more agricultural activities within the city, as we talk with Portland's "food czar" Steve Cohen and senior planner Jessica Richman, who is part of the team that wrote Portland's new food zoning code.